San Andreas Fault

One of the best known tectonic plate boundaries is the San Andreas Fault. The San Andreas Fault is a transform fault and it extends roughly 750 miles along the state of California in the U.S. The two plates that create this fault are the Pacific plate, which is an oceanic plate underneath the pacific ocean, and the North American plate, which is a continental plate that covers most of North America. One of the main land formations that has occurred here are the traverse ranges, which are a group of mountain ranges in southern California. Mountain ranges are a result of ductile deformation, which is when rocks change shape without breaking. Ductile deformation is caused by compression, which is when to plates, this case the Pacific plate and the North American plate, essentially crash together creating a horizontal force. The biggest land formation in the region are the fault zones, which are created mainly with by the same compressional forces as the travers ranges but at a shallower depth. Some of the rocks that can be found in the San Andreas Fault are shale, sandstone and serpentine, a remnant of ancient oceanic crust.